During the campaign of 1944,
"Operation Thursday" and the landing of gliders and
aircraft (C-47's) into "Broadway" the watch over the
hills and sometime in the small hours of the morning. Sleep
eludes me and increasingly my thoughts return to those dark days
in a foreign land and I am back with my old comrades of the
Lancashire Fusiliers lying on the Burma earth listening intently
for the sounds of engines in the darkness of the night.

Time flies by on kaden wings then
above the cacophony of jungle noises, we hear the welcome sound.
We get the signal, light the fires, all is well. Father Christmas
has arrived!

We gather up the loot, put out the
fires and move on to a safe bivouac area. We say a prayer - thank
you 27th Troop Carrier Squadron, may God give you a safe journey
home and off to sleep - all is well! No doubt, they did wonderful
work in finding the dropping zone.

Being the commando platoon of 20
column we never experienced the loss of supplies, which arrived
always on time at every drop.

Written by John T. Mattinson,
Manchester, England 17th March, 1990.

NB. The above is taken, in part,
from a letter Mr. Mattinson wrote to John Gordon, navigator and
copilot assigned to the 27th Troop Carrier Squadron.